by Brian Senior
Lending credence to the old story about the monkeys and typewriters, my partner, Nigel Bird and I, led at the end of day one of the Swiss Pairs. We did well on defence on this deal from match four:
Board 8. Dealer West. None Vul.
| 7 |
||
| 98 |
||
| QJ9542 |
||
| Q932 |
||
| KJ42 |
95 |
|
| Q4 |
A10765 |
|
| K |
10876 |
|
| AK10854 |
J6 |
|
| AQ10863 |
||
| KJ32 |
||
| A3 |
||
| 7 |
West North East South
Senior Bird
1 2 Pass 2
3 Pass Pass 3
All Pass
Nigel led the jack of clubs to my king. Endplayed, I got out with the king of diamonds to dummy's ace, and declarer played ace of spades then ruffed a spade, ruffed a club, then ruffed another spade. Nigel over-ruffed the nine with the ten and returned a low heart. As I had done all the bidding, declarer misguessed, putting in the jack. I won the Q and returned my remaining heart. Nigel won the ace and exited with a trump, and declarer was endplayed to lead away from the queen of clubs in the endgame so lost two of those and was down two for –100.
Squeezes come in al shapes and sizes, and we scored very well on this next deal, which comes from round five.
Board 12. Dealer West. N/S Vul.
| KQ8 |
||
| 1082 |
||
| A107 |
||
| KJ52 |
||
| 9542 |
76 |
|
| A |
QJ953 |
|
| 86532 |
QJ94 |
|
| 1098 |
74 |
|
| AJ103 |
||
| K764 |
||
| K |
||
| AQ63 |
West North East South
Senior Bird
Pass 1NT Pass 2
Pass 2 Pass 3NT
All Pass
The board or, rather, the destination of a lot of the matchpoints, was decided at trick one. East led the queen of hearts and it was a matter of covering or not covering. Well, you can see that not covering is the winning choice, but did everyone who ducked at trick one go on to make all the rest of the tricks after the bare ace appeared from West?
It's simply a matter of cashing tricks in the right order so as to be in hand at trick 12. Declarer wins the likely diamond return with the bare king at trick two and cashes four spades followed by four clubs, ending in hand. When East has both the missing diamond honours, the fourth club squeezes him. The ace of diamonds comes next and declarer is in hand with the two red tens facing king and another heart in the dummy, and East cannot keep both suits guarded so declarer has 12 tricks.
Board 24 was a tough slam hand due to the vigorous opposition bidding.
Board 24. Dealer West. None Vul.
| QJ108732 |
||
| K |
||
| A6 |
||
| AJ10 |
||
| - |
96 |
|
| 109632 |
AQJ54 |
|
| J9852 |
Q73 |
|
| 985 |
763 |
|
| AK54 |
||
| 87 |
||
| K104 |
||
| KQ42 |
West North East South
Durdin Senior Tilley Bird
Pass 1 2 2NT(i)
5 5 All Pass
(i) Game-forcing spade raise
Mark Tilley overcalled 2 and Tim Durdin's advance sacrifice of 5 took away all our bidding space. I guessed to bid only 5 and the cold slam was missed.
If you have sufficient partnership understanding, there is a way to make North's decision less of a guess. As 2NT was game-forcing, North should be able to make a forcing pass over 5, leaving South to decide whether to bid on to 5 or to double 5. The clever idea is that, if South doubles, suggesting that he doesn't fancy the five level, North can now pull the double to 5, inviting slam as a hand without slam interest could have bid 5 immediately over 5. If, however, South bids 5 when 5 comes round to him, he can be assumed to have a more suitable hand, and now North goes on to 6.
On the actual hand, South could assume that his partner had a heart control to be willing to leave the decision round to his partner, and South, with good cards – including the ace and king of trumps – should bid 5 when 5 comes round to him, and North goes on to slam.
This next deal is Board 1 of round one.
Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul.
| KQ1075 |
||
| AK |
||
| KQJ10 |
||
| KQ |
||
| A2 |
J |
|
| QJ7 |
9652 |
|
| 862 |
A975 |
|
| 108762 |
AJ94 |
|
| 98643 |
||
| 10843 |
||
| 43 |
||
| 53 |
West North East South
– 2 Pass 2
Pass 2 Pass 4
All Pass
Matchpoints is not just about playing the hand in a technically correct fashion, it is also about playing in a manner which gives the best chance for an opponent to misdefend.
This deal looks to be a total bore, doesn't it, with declarer off three aces but having everything else without the need for finesses, ruffs, a squeeze, or anything.
But against me East led the jack of spades to West's ace and back came a second spade.
Does it matter where you win this trick?
Yes, it does.
I got lazy and very lucky when I won in hand and plonked the king of diamonds on the table. On winning the ace of diamonds, East should really have cashed the ace of clubs and held me to 10 tricks, but he won the diamond and returned a heart, and I could get both dummy's clubs away on the diamonds and had an undeserved overtrick.
Declarer should do his best to conceal the solidity of his diamond holding, and the way to do so is to create a second dummy entry by unblocking a spade honour from hand at trick one, win the second spade in dummy and lead a diamond towards his hand, probably putting in the jack or queen as though having a broken holding – from East's perspective, finding his partner with even the ten of diamonds is sufficient to prevent the actual outcome from occurring.
On this deal, where the whole field should be in 4, making 11 tricks as opposed to 10 is worth a whole half of a top, so well worth working for.
August 14, 2022